Have you ever though how much you can learn from a day in a museum?
Well, I’m here to share with you the marvels I found in Villa Borghese, along with their stories.
Follow me down this thread to a world of myth and divine inspiration:
Apollo and Daphne by Bernini; the sculpture depicts the climax of the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphe, as the nymph escapes Apollo's advances by transforming into a laurel tree.
Can you see the dynamic movement? Can you see her transforming?
Zoom In.
Venus Victrix, meaning Aphrodite the victorious; she holds an apple in her hand evoking her victory in the Judgement of Paris, which caused the Trojan War.
Can you see the winner’s arrogance in her posture?
Speaking of the Trojan War, here’s Aeneas and Anchisses. The Trojan hero Aeneas, is carrying his old father after the fall of Troy.
Myth wants him to have founded Rome.
Can you see the strength in the body of the son carrying the fickle body of his father?
Intermission: just a couple of little angels looking at you at the gate arc.
Just another one of this breathtaking ceilings. This scene depicts the Greek myth of Phaethon, son of Helius - the Sun.
The boy took his fathers chariot, carrying the Light but, after many complaints, from the stars in the sky to the Earth herself, Zeus strikes Phaethon with one of his lightning bolts, killing him instantly.
David preparing to launch his projectile against Goliath; this is the biblical story depicting David determined to win this fight for his life.
Another masterpiece of Bernini.
Can you see the determination in his facial expression? Zoom in!
And I saved the best fo last; Persephone’s abduction by Hades, also by Bernini.
This tragic scene depicts Hades, king of the underworld, abducting Persephone? Daughter of Demeter, Goddess of agriculture and nature. This Ancient Greek myth was used to explain the seasonal changes, as a deal was struck among the gods: Persephone would spend half a year above the ground with her mother (spring and summer) and half the year below (autumn and winter).
They ended up happily married.
Can you see her tears? Zoom in!
All photos are mine, from my travel diaries.
If you liked the stories, please share and spread the word. Our fellow humans need to see what our species is capable of.
A final shot of the three-headed good boy, Cerberus. I bet you don’t encounter this angle often.
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Alexander the Great and Philip II: Macedonian kings or sons of Hellas?
Time to settle this, once and for all..🧵⤵️
The question of whether the ancient Macedonians were Greek has sparked debate, blending historical inquiry with modern politics. At the heart of this controversy lies the legacy of a people who, under the Argead dynasty, reshaped the ancient world.
Let's see facts⤵️
The debate over the Macedonians’ identity is not merely academic; it carries political weight, especially in the Balkans (where else?!).
In the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Skopje, Slavic inhabitants claim ancient Macedonians as ancestors to bolster their national identity.
Pope Francis, 112th Pontifex, has passed and the conclave of cardinals will soon elect its next leader.
Yet an ominous prophecy says that the next Pope will be the last, as Judgment is upon us and “the seven-hilled city will be destroyed”.
Is this the End? 🧵⤵️
The Vatican, steeped in mourning, prepares for the conclave to name the successor. Yet, in the background, a faint murmur stirs—an old prophecy, attributed to Saint Malachy, the 12th-century archbishop of Armagh, that some believe points to the end of the papacy itself.
Known as the Prophecy of the Popes, this list of 112 Latin phrases, first published in 1595 by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion, claims to describe every pope from Celestine II in 1143 to a final figure called “Peter the Roman.”
When we talk of Industrial age we think of the 18th century AD; what if I told you that Hellenistic Greeks came close 1700 years earlier?
In Alexandria, Greeks had advanced hydraulics, magnetic tech and even a jet propulsion system; here’s the Hellenistic Steampunk story..🧵⤵️
We shall focus specifically on Alexandria; founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria was a planned metropolis on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, where the Nile Delta met the sea.
By the Hellenistic period, under the rule of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, it had grown into one of the largest and most influential cities in the ancient world, rivaling Athens and later Rome.
Alexandria was a masterpiece of urban design, with a grid layout planned by architect Dinocrates and Alexander himself. Wide boulevards, like the Canopic Way, bustled with activity, lined with marble colonnades, statues, and palm trees.
The city’s centerpiece was the Lighthouse of Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders, its beacon guiding ships into the bustling Great Harbor.
But what if they were ladders—or messages—carved in stone, to the stars?
And then the real question is: what—or who—were so many pyramids around the world built for?🧵⤵️
Why do pyramids worldwide share uncanny traits—stellar alignments, sacred geometry, and monumental scale? How did disparate cultures, separated by oceans, master megalithic engineering?
Some propose lost technologies or shared ancestral knowledge; others talk of extraterrestrial guidance, though evidence remains elusive.
Modern scans reveal voids in Giza’s pyramid (I’ve written about this, check my Highlights section), tunnels beneath Teotihuacán, and chambers in Gunung Padang—yet their purposes evade us.
The stones stand, mocking our tools and theories; let’s explore some of them.
A covert unit so classified, its existence was a myth. Missions so wild that dodging bullets while hanging out of a helicopter's just a Tuesday; 100% casualty rate but they all signed up anyway.
I’ll tell you a Cold War story: 6 MACv SOG warriors against 30,000 Vietcong..🧵⤵️
Their missions were suicidal, their existence denied, buried under layers of classified ink. This is a tale of MACV-SOG’s most harrowing operations, where courage met madness.
This is the stuff that made me volunteer and join the Special Forces as well; fuel of legends.
Even its name makes no sense: Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). Yet they were the U.S. military’s most secretive unit.
These elite warriors—Green Berets, SEALs & indigenous allies—waged war in places the U.S. swore it never tread
Everybody knows about the Greco-Roman triumphs but not many people understand how those societies were fundamentally built. They were geared to produce humans capable of such feats.
Let's explore how body, mind, and spirit were forged into the steel of powerful societies..🧵⤵️
I will start a race called the Hellenes, the Greeks; the madmen that started it all. The Romans then took what the Greeks had discovered into another level.
It makes sense then to explore the roots of the virtuous rites that made the Greco-Roman world the pillar of the West.
Central to the Greek universe was their Polis, their City (-state); it is known that “Hellas” or “Greece” was not a unified state or an Empire, like Rome, but rather a universe where the many city-states or kingdoms existed, united by a framework of religion, culture, ethos, language, genealogy and heritage.